flying in UK having trained in the US...

[crazypilot]

Hi all,

I did my PPL out in Florida last summer, but have not been able to do any since (uni loans are not that generous). How do others who have trained in the US start once they get back to the UK----due to the vast differences in flying?

I'm a bit unsure as to where to start---I know my navigation here will be a bit up the creek and I'm new to the idea of paying landing fees. How many hours do others do before they feel comfortable flying over here??

Can anyone explain??

Cheers
CP

[bottle2throttle]

Crazyp

I was exactly the same as you. It took me a good 5 hours with an instructor before I set myself loose. This country is so flat (i trained in california where nav is piss easy)
The RT is a little different to.

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Jesus, this bogy's all over me...........

[Iain]

The biggest thing I noticed was the charts are very different. I only flew with an instructor for 2 hours before (just getting to know the area) I went buzzing around the circuit in the rain. I did not want to do too much flying with an instructor as I did not want to feel as if I needed one for every flight, and you also learn more when you are on your own. This is the stage I am currently at, I feel as I know the area enough to be happy flying over the countryside, amd before I do a x-country I plan to get briefed by an instructor.
Iain

[JT8]

Crazy pilot,

I did my PPL in Florida in 2 1/2 weeks, came back to the UK and didn't fly for 5 months. It took me about 6/7 hrs with an instructor. Hardest thing was the difference in RT. Having said that I'm still glad I did it in the States. BTW, I find nav 10 times easier here compared with FL.

JT8 :)

[crazypilot]

Excellent-thanks for that everyone

Cheers
CP

[DeeTee]

I intended to do all my training in Forida, but ended up doing 185 hours, PPL, Night and IMC and returnng to finish the commercials at (what was then (BAe Prestwick). I found flying in the UK a bit trickier, especially the nav side. Florida is mainly flat, and there tends to be miles and miles of lovely huge fields to PFL into if it goes wrong. Also towns are miles and miles apart. Most towns have their own airfield and Navaids (of sorts). So if you are flying around and see a town, you can glance at a map and say...oh yeah that must be XXXXXX. However if you fly around the Uk and try looking at a map and updating your position all our towns sort of join onto one another Reading, Oxford, Maidenhead, Henley etc. Also in the USA their transition altitude is 18,000'. As you know over here it is 3,000...or it can be 6,000' if you are in the Scottish TMA, so you can be constantly changing altimeter settings if you fancy flying around Scotland. Also we have military airfields all over the damn place with variable height traffic zones all around them and finding yourself at 4,000' over RAF Lyneham because you never saw, in the dark on a night navex, that right over the top the control zone goes upto 6000' can all be a bit wearing.

Also it is massively more expensive here!!

Anyway I enjoyed my flying in both the USA and here. I found the weather worse in Florida, especially the turbulance and CB dodging. Anyone that tells you America is 'blue sky flying' is talking out of another orifice.

But as a final word, if you are looking for fun and enjoyable flying at a reasonable price head to the States or OZ. If you are looking to get into aviation professionally then sooner or later you're going to end up paying the big bucks for naff all to fly here. So it may be better to bite the bullet earlier and get familiar with the UK.

[CAP509castaway]

Crazypilot where are you based?

[crazypilot]

Well I'm at uni at the moment, but when I go home for the summer, I will be at Oxford. Probably go to Pilot Flight Training there.

CP